Today in Y3CGermán asked about the so-called Discovery of America (as it was called in our textbook), or the conquest, or the colonization (funny [= strange] we think of Invasions when that happens to us), and I replied that they should be careful about saying “discovery” because people already lived there, had their own lives, and those people were actually INVADED by European hordes, who robbed them and raped them and murdered them, even committing genocide, and generally waging non-stop war, even when they were welcome by the “primitive” peoples who actually welcomed them, shared their goods and friendship with them, and were then slaughtered because the guys wanted MORE, they wanted it ALL, like the capitalist system today, unable to think that there is a limit to resources and that our priorities should be life on the planet, well-being of living beings on the planet. Collaboration. Not war. Solidarity. Not exploitation.

Any kind of people (=pueblo) has the right to live. It doesn’t matter if they are “primitive” or “civilized”. And the History we’ve been told for centuries (patriarchal history) is TERRIFYING in all of its lying and hatred towards people. Women have not been inferior human beings, “primitive peoples” didn’t need “civilized peoples” at all, and they certainly didn’t need them to massacre them, and abuse and exploit them.

Germán, I’ve ordered a copy of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the USA for you, because one of the things that moves me deeply, and that might be why I am a teacher, I mean, a facilitator of learning (apart from the fact that I have to earn a living — no escape!), is that kind of question that shouts out “I want to know more about this”. But then, if I got it wrong, or if you simply don’t want it, please, don’t feel obliged to accept this little gift. We can raffle it in Fifth Year at the end of the course! 🙂